Review: The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

Unlike Connolly's The Gates, which I recently reviewed, The Book of Lost Things is not meant to share with children. I had fully intended upon reading it with my daughter, as I had Gates, but after a few chapters was glad I had decided to go through it myself first.

At first, Things, which takes place in 1940s England, seems innocuous. Following the death of his mother, with whom he shared a love of fairy tales, twelve year-old David begins hearing voices from the books in his room. In fact, he begins to hear voices from every book he comes in contact with. Very shortly, David's father begins to date, Rose, an administrator from the respite care facility where his mother spent her last days, and it is then that David has his first 'attack' - an almost seizure-like episode where he can see a distant land with his mind's eye. By the time David's father reveals to him that Rose is pregnant, and they will be getting married, David has learned to control his attacks, but now there is something new; a Crooked Man has crossed over from the land of fantasy into David's world, and David has begun to hear his mother's voice calling to him from the woods behind the house, pleading with him to follow her voice and help her. One inevitable night, David finally follows the voice, and winds up in the Crooked Man's world, where animals want to be men, and nightmarish monsters roam free. The spoiled and unhappy David must journey to find the King, travelling at times with others, but always relying on himself to solve the puzzle of this place.

The Book of Lost Things once again brings to mind a Stephen King novel, this time The Dark Tower series. In fact, one of the characters David travels with is named Roland, and he is a gunslinger of sorts on a quest to a dark tower. Many other works of fiction are mentioned / appear in Book, as well, including several grotesque retellings of popular fairy tales that relate to the world in which David finds himself. The tales are told by various characters David runs into as either explanations of creatures or allegories for the events and transformations that David himself is experiencing. These references are at turns interesting and disgusting, and are integral parts of the story. It is these stories, along with the deeper social commentary, that make the novel inappropriate for younger readers.

While the novel seemed to briefly lose forward motion in the middle, the beginning and endings make it still well worth the read. The characters and events, which are at first deceptively straightforward, are by the end an obvious tapestry of foreshadowing and deeper workings. It was not the typical read, and that in itself makes it a good choice, since much of what is out there at the moment seems to be firmly in one groove or another. The social and morality tales of the story are definitely there for the ingestion, but aren't presented in a hit-you-over-the-head kind of way. There were plans to turn the novel into a film, and rights were purchased by John Moore, who did the new Omen film, but that seems to have tanked. I think this is just as well, since books like this, to me, are better left to the imagination where gore can't overtake the actual meat of the story.

Rating: four stars. Interesting blend of ideas, loses steam briefly before a stellar ending.